Paul Strohm is Garbedian Professor of the Humanities, Emeritus, at Columbia University. He has previously taught (as J.R.R. Tolkien Professor) at the University of Oxford, at Indiana University, and other institutions.  His academic specialization has been in medieval English literature, and he has published a number of volumes in that area, beginning with Social Chaucer (Harvard, 1989) and including Theory and the Premodern Text (Minnesota, 2000).  His current interest is in writing about the enticements of early literature for inquisitive but non-specialist audiences, including Conscience: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2011) and Chaucer’s Tale (Viking-Penguin, 2014). He also writes short fiction. One hundred of his hundred-word stories have been collected and are available as Sportin’ Jack (2015).